PL thunderrock A18

[Minimus Ambus]

pl_thunderrock - BLU launches an assault on a RED base located on, ThunderRock.

pl_thunderrock is a map I have been developing for about a week. Things are mostly where I want them. However, I am willing to change anything due to feedback.
The map is a four point payload map designed with the "Frontline! Community Pack". There is ample amount of high ground for RED and there are some flank routes for BLU to take. There are small indents in the ground that RED may use as an area to defend against the oncoming onslaught from BLU. There are also bunkers and crates everywhere for defending or for hiding behind.
Lighting, like everything else, is a work in progress. So the map may be a bit dark in some areas.

 

[YOYOYO]

its looking cool

 

[Minimus Ambus]

Forgot to pack the last version. This one is packed + repacked, so it should be good for servers. Sorry 'bout that.

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[PossessedInkieShark]

Before a round even started:
There is only one working spawn location for red in red's forward spawn, each spawn area should have 16 spawn locations
Blue's spawn gates can be opened during set up, by both teams
You can attack blue players from outside their spawn and vice versa

 

[Minimus Ambus]

Before a round even started:
There is only one working spawn location for red in red's forward spawn, each spawn area should have 16 spawn locations
Blue's spawn gates can be opened during set up, by both teams
You can attack blue players from outside their spawn and vice versa

I can fix that, will post a new update to fix this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 

[Minimus Ambus]

He pointed out some spawn problems. Thanks to him. This update should fix them. Problems included: not all red spawn points being active, red/ blu being able to attack blu while in their first spawn, red and blu's spawns could be opened by the opposing team, and there not being enough spawn points to support a 32 player match.
Again, thank you to Sinchu9 for pointing out these problems, hopefully this update fixed them.

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[Da Spud Lord]

This feedback is for A3, so some of these problems may be fixed in A4, but I decided to share it anyway because I had already collected these screenshots by time A4 came around.


You can shoot stickies and other projectiles in and out of Blu's spawn, over the walls. This shouldn't be allowed, especially during setup time when teams are meant to not be fighting. Although replacing your clip brushes with blockbullets could fix this problem, that's lazy and it breaks players' sense of realism. I recommend adding a roof instead.

Also, you can go in and out of the setup gate during setup time. Make sure the gates remain locked during setup time so Blu can't attack Red while Red is setting up.


Weird invisible walls. Don't do that. The second one is especially annoying because there's nothing to indicate there's a wall there. If nothing else, at least chuck a few fence props there.


Visible trigger brushes. I'm guessing that's not supposed to be visible.


These mines are evil. If that's the kind of map you wanna go for, then go ahead, but players will likely get very frustrated by them.


Overlapping textures.


LONG. SIGHTLINES.

I can see all the way to Blu's spawn gate from here. Getting sniped from halfway across the map just after spawning isn't fun. Use buildings, map curves, and hills to break sightlines. TF2 is a close to mid range FPS, so design your map around that. Damage falloff is a very important factor in TF2.


This tree has very odd collision.


Blu has no way to flank at last, so I predict it will likely be difficult to push into here.


Right out of Blu's spawn, we have a large open box with stuff in it. Don't make a large, open box with stuff in it. For examples of good right-out-of-spawn areas, look at Upward, which uses height variation, or Badwater, which gives Blu flanking opportunities, to allow Blu to push out of spawn and create interesting combat from the minute setup time ends.


Some parts of your map have massive height differences. These height advantages make soldiers and defenders very powerful. Quick tip when making height variation: Be careful when creating drops that are greater than 256 HU- after falling 256 HU, players take fall damage. That's not to say don't ever use large drops- Badwater makes good use of large drops, and it's one of the best maps in the game- but just consider how these drops will impact gameplay. Remember, damage falloff also applies over vertical distance too.

 

[YOYOYO]

this might not help a lot, but you don't need to name it with underscores and "pl"

 

[YOYOYO]

as in the tf2.nets name

 

[Minimus Ambus]

After receiving quite a bit of feedback from "Da Spud King" I have made some changes. I would have to agree that these are some improvements. Though there is still a bit to be done in response to the feedback. (PS: I will be updating the screenshots next update)

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[YOYOYO]

a question for you, what is the name of the game, because I cant find "pl_thunderrock a5 or anything"

 

[YOYOYO]

nvm

 

[YOYOYO]

What I saw was an issue was that I couldn't get trough the second spawn. the first pic is me trying to get out, and the second is bots freaking out. (yes, I played with bots because I cant find a server)

 

[Minimus Ambus]

• updated screenshots
• fixed the cart being able to roll away from a point
• fixed various bugs related to BLU's second spawn
• added a bit of texture
• decrease the the amount of high ground overlooking the second point.

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[YOYOYO]

thx

 

[Minimus Ambus]

• blocked another crossmap sniper sightline
• made some pretty displacements

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[Minimus Ambus]

• added some detailing to the ground
• added a health pack by the second point
• added some cover around the ramp leading from the second point to the third point
• added more displacements

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[Minimus Ambus]

• Added a second level to Blu's first spawn
• added a new flank route by the first point
• added some cover by Blu's first spawn
• added a bit of detail to the building by Red's spawn
• fixed a few technical bugs
• blocked of the bunker to the high right of Blu's spawn (gave an unfair height advantage and made soldier/ sniper very overpowered)
• updated screenshots
• added more detail to the ground/ cliffs by the first and second point

-Help needed: I want the room to the left of Red's spawn to be a medicenter. An idea I had for this was to assemble an audio file with Medic/ Heavy voicelines and then put those in an 'ambient_generic' near the medicenter.
I've assembled the audio file, but I can't figure out how to use custom audio files. Can any one help?

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[Minimus Ambus]

• added some high ground on the last point
• fixed some lighting

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[Minimus Ambus]

-added a building by the 3rd point
-began to add in gameplay props to help make it feel more like a TF2 map
-fixed both of the bunker walls exploding at the same time (the bunker after 1st)
-began to prepare for future texturing
-made some prop changes

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